British Actress Blog

Hysteria (2011)

Score: 9/10

Director: Tanya Wexler

Stars: Felicity Jones, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Hugh Dancy, Jonathan Pryce, Rupert Everett, Sheridan Smith.

Hysteria

Felicity Jones

Synopsis: The story of how Dr. Mortimer Granville and an electrician named Edmund St. John-Smythe created a new “medical procedure” that treats Hysteria.

Review: A doctor named Dr. Mortimer Granville (Hugh Dancy ) has just been fired from his job for practicing new forms of medicine. He is repeatedly rejected in every job interview he gets. One day he goes on a job interview and meets and doctor named Dr. Robert Dalrymple (Jonathan Pryce ). While on this interview, Mortimer has a run in with Dr. Dalrymple’s daughter Charlotte Dalrymple (Maggie Gyllenhaal ) an idealistic Suffragette, who’s plans for social justice takes Mortimer on a life changing journey.

Emily Dalrymple

Felicity Jones

Felicity Jones does a very good job at playing the ideal English lady of the time. She does this very well in films such as Northanger Abbey (2007) and Chéri (2009). I like her work in ROGUE ONE a star wars story (2016) but Felicity Jones seems to play the classic English lady role perfectly. Hugh Dancy plays this role comfortably and well. When he was playing the character Will Graham on the TV show Hannibal, he did well but you could see that he was really trying hard to but on a good performance. Here in this film you can tell Hugh Dancy was having fun playing in this film. The mostly English cast of this film is absolutely great. I prefer to see English actors playing English characters since that offers a since of authenticity and makes the film feel like what we are seeing on the screen is real. We movie goers enjoy the illusions that films offer and casting the right people makes such a great deference. Well done.

Dr. Robert Dalrymple

Jonathan Pryce

The film focuses on the idea that life is what you make it. You may choose to stick with certain social structures or not. For the philanthropist Charlotte Dalrymple, she focuses on helping those who cannot help themselves and does everything in her power to recruit Mortimer into her charitable fold. For Mortimer, his ideas are to live for something and truly help those in need. His idea is that he is a human first and a doctor second. His patients are humans first and patients second. He connects with others and care for them like any regular person should. This is consistent with a concept known as “care ethics”. The film Stonehearst Asylum (2014) with Kate Beckinsale and the The Danish Girl (2015) with Alicia Vikander, shows us how absolutely brutal the medical establishment was in those days. Anything outside the norm invoked moral panic which made the frightened more scary and vicious than the fear it’s self.

Molly

Sheridan Smith

The cinematography is perfect. The lighting, set dressing, wardrobe, backgrounds, and color are absolutely perfect. The film immerses you into the old world of England. Each character actually has something to offer the story. The film uses “set up and pay off” very well. This is not a family movie at all. The film is about the creation of the world’s first vibrator, yes you read that right. Certain scenes in this film are hilarious and definitely not for children. This is a more subdued film that deals with more interpersonal relationships, social issues, and plots. This movie is extremely high quality and deals with very real world issues regardless of the time period. The movie is a good watch.

More Felicity Jones Movies

Northanger Abbey (2007)

The Theory of Everything (2014)

Chéri (2009)

Inferno (2016)

Recent Posts